Covidlive operator Anthony Macali slams NT’s Covid case count revisions
One of Australia’s leading Covid-19 data analysts has pushed back on the NT government’s decision to revise Covid-19 figures, sometimes by as much as 300 cases.
Northern Territory
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ONE of the nation’s most prominent Covid-19 data journalists has blasted the NT government over its “terrible” and “confusing” reporting of Covid-19 figures.
Anthony Macali, who runs Covidlive.com.au, said the NT’s habit of adjusting the figures from the day before was a practice out of step with the rest of the nation.
The NT has in recent weeks been bumping up case numbers retrospectively, sometimes by over 100 cases, because of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) submitted after the 8pm cut-off.
For instance, Health Minister Natasha Fyles on Tuesday announced a further 152 cases had been added to Monday’s Covid-19 caseload.
Mr Macali’s website has been collating the daily case figures of every state and territory since the start of the pandemic.
He said the Territory’s habit of revising figures due to RATs was “really odd reporting”, given PCR tests — that took several days to show a result — were only being added to the day the result was recorded to the government. “Normally you just include it in the current day, you don’t go back in history,” Mr Macali said. “Maybe they’re trying to make the daily case number not look so bad, that’s the only reason I can think of.
“It’s a terrible way, it’s super confusing.” An NT Health spokeswoman said the data on Covid-19 infections were collected in the 24-hour period to 8pm each day.
“People in the NT who test positive for COVID-19 using a Rapid Antigen Test must register their result using an Online Declaration Form,” the spokeswoman said.
“Community members don’t always register their result on the day they tested positive. Data is reconfigured to reflect the day the positive test was undertaken.”
It comes as the Northern Territory continues to defy the downward trend in Covid-19 cases seen in other states.
There were 1092 new cases of Covid-19 reported on Tuesday. There was also an upward revision of Monday’s case numbers due to rapid antigen results.
Hospitalisations grew by 22 patients to 178, with 33 people requiring oxygen and five patients in intensive care.
This represents the second ever highest jump in active cases, only rivalled on February 2 when 1217 positive tests were recorded.
There were 7407 active cases in the Territory.
The bulk of Tuesday’s cases were recorded in the Top End (589), with 230 cases being found in Central Australia.
The NT Government has repeatedly stated that this week marked the expected peak in the Omicron wave.
There have been little signs of cases plateauing in the seven-day average, with cases consistently over the 1000 mark.
A mask mandate remains in effect in indoor venues across the Territory, while the commonwealth has also established Biosecurity Zones around remote communities in the NT.
A man from the community of Kintore became the fifth person to die with Covid-19 in the NT on the weekend.
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